It was instructive to hear Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn talk about his star cornerback on Tuesday, bypassing Sherman's knack for sound bites to share about his above-the-neck qualities as a defender.

"He's got extreme recall," Quinn said. "Formations, plays and information from this game, last season, last week. And he can recall it fast.

"My first experience with that was when we were getting ready to play Carolina in the opener, and he said, 'Last year, this, this and this.' Without even getting into the game plan that week, he had some formations and alerts that he remembered already."

Watching film, almost obsessively, aids this process. Safety Earl Thomas told Around The League earlier this week that Sherman has a gift for seeing a play on tape, maybe just once, only to dial it up at will in conversation down the road.

"I think the mental quickness for him, when he sees information, he can transfer it so quickly, almost like a quarterback who has that kind of quickness," Quinn said.

For all the chatter about this player, I cannot find a single Seahawk who doesn't rave about Sherman as a teammate and someone who arrives fully prepared for every day, every week and every game.